Infected Preauricular pit (please help)

My Preauricular pit is now infected much like the picture that I attached. This is the second time that it has got infected and I am now 16 years old. My doctor had prescribed antibiotics to me and now i'm finish with it. In about a week I will have to go to an ENT doctor to see if I need to have it removed by surgery or not and my family really doesn't want me to undergo the surgery because of the high failure rates. Now my mom want to sterilize a needle and try to bust it. She said she did it the first time when it got infected, but thats when I was a very little girl. I just wanted to know if it is safe or not to have my mom do it. Also please if you have bust it yourself please let me know how it turned out.

[ent62]

It appears to be an abscess that certainly needs to be drained. A preauricular sinus may be infected repeatedly. In that situation it has to be excised once the acute infection has been adequately controlled. I don't agree about high failure rates if the job is done properly. Thanks.

[ENTMD]

Draining this at home is not advised as the infection could spread/worsen.  You would likely need some oral antibiotics to help with this.  Complete excision is the only treatment to permanently take care of this.  Failure rates aside, there is really no other solution.

[bon2]

mine was recently infected and it was my second time as well. I was put on Augmentin for seven days. To help it soften up i would put a warm cloth on it at night or as often as possible. The thing is my first infection was when i was 16 and because i did not understand anything, the doctor perfomed an I&D which was a horrible experience. I do not ever want to go through it again hopefully so i explore other methods whichworked for me. after a few days the pus made its way out as it softened up. However you need to be carefull when draining it at home.

I totally know how you feel and i was happy to see that im not weird but there are peole with the same condition as me. Im better now and hoping that it wont get infected anytime soon. Its something we have to live with.

\i hope yours gets better.

Regards, B

[OHNS2010]

Hi Christi,

Go to your doctor at the earliest, get it aspirated rather than incising and draining it. Take oral antibiotics (such as Augmentin) and pain relievers (such as Ibuprofen/ Diclofenac). Once the infection subsides get it excised.

Regards
OHNS2010